SammalFive normal looking gentleman stand in front of a bare tree in contrast to the colourful cover artwork of this album, whose shape could be a pattern which you would paint as a child and fold over to create symmetry. The gentlemen in question are from Finland and provide evidence that they like classic prog rock. But whilst undoubtedly we find ourselves transported back to the 70s and the days of Camel and the like, don’t go away with the idea that this is about harking back to a golden era of prog rock and nothing else. In fact one thing for sure is that Camel and co did not write their lyrics and track titles in Finnish, which gives the album a certain ambiance. On an administrative note, the track listing in the publicity and promotional copy seems to be in a different order, so rather than get it wrong, I won’t refer to their titles. This is a relief and parochial on my part as track titles like “Näennäiskäännännäinen” are not only hard to swallow or even write, but also sound to me like a disappointing collection of scrabble letters. To avoid such parochialism, I did check with my Finnish friend what this snappy title meant. After starting his response with “It’s tricky”, he then told me it’s like a complex, paradoxical compound play on words meaning something like “Virtual Inversion”. I think we can gather from this that there’s a cerebral element about this album, and although I don’t understand the lyrics I could sense this in the listening along with delicacy and feeling.

Musically, this album blew hot and cold for me. It is at its hottest with the 9 minute opening track. It’s sort of hippie in style. Meanwhile, cymbals shiver as they do throughout the album and there’s a dreamy mood based on a firm base of lush and progressive guitar work. Keys float in the background. This lengthy song develops through light and dark passages but always flows like a stream. The fact that the lyrics are in Finnish is not so unusual and like Tenhi, there’s a mystical quality about the vocals, which are clean but supply a spookiness to the patient and hypnotic rhythm. All 9 minutes are well used, and it’s a shame that there is no other magnum opus of this kind on the album. Occasionally there are moments of mild eccentricity and reversion to the 70’s in sound and style. Sultry moments mix with classic rock tunes which in turn build up to quiet marches, hints of bluesiness and sections of Sgt Peppery melancholia which again build up to a gentle march. But pleasant as it all is, it can be staid. The penultimate track aspires to an edgy mood, but in spite of the subtle twists and turns going on the background, it sounded tired to me and certainly doesn’t find any heights or excitement. I did however like the seventh track, which is a kind of Finnish “Scarborough Fair”. With a funky and deliberately fuzzy sound in places, it succeeds in taking us to prog dreamland. As the album closed, I reflected that this is all very steady and relaxing rather than breathtaking. I didn’t think this was a great song. The Hammond organ plays its part and the cymbals continue to shiver but in the final outcome and true to the atmosphere thus far this self-titled album closes out in an understated way.

There is warmth in this work, and moments of greatness on the opening track in particular, but in spite of the subtleties within too much of it seemed to be on auto-pilot for me. Sammal’s opening album left something behind in the ideas department and needed to go further in order to do what they seemed to be aiming to do, namely to put a modern slant on a classic prog rock style.

(5.5/10 Andrew Doherty)

www.facebook.com/pages/Sammal/109324700030